After cruising, first speed bump for Mayor Ed Lee’s jobs plan

Mayor Ed Lee announced more money for small business loans. And the job creation thing had been going so smoothly. (Photo by Brant Ward / The Chronicle)

It looks like Mayor Ed Lee may have hit his first speed bump in trying to enact the 17-point jobs plan he campaigned heavily on last fall.

While some elements of that agenda, like more loans for small businesses, have been sailing along, the plan faced one of its first tests today when Supervisor David Campos, the powerful San Francisco Labor Council and other workers groups voiced major concerns about one point in the plan that would require new legislation be reviewed specifically for its impact on jobs.

Some skeptics see that plan, which in its current form requires amending the City Charter, as a solution in search of a problem. Others said it would interfere with the authority of the board, or simply add a layer to an already thick bureaucracy. Many warned it would lead to a big political fight.

“This is going to be very divisive,” Tim Paulson, executive director of the Labor Council, told the Board of Supervisors’ Rules Committee.

Paulson and 18 other labor leaders in a joint letter called Lee’s jobs impact review legislation a tool “right out of the Tea Party/Republican handbook.” They argued that it would have endangered the city’s landmark universal health care and minimum wage laws if in effect when those were passed.

The mayor’s staff said that simply is not the case, noting the proposal doesn’t apply to legislation that goes before voters, like the health care and minimum wage laws did.

“This simply adds one jobs impact hearing to the process,” said Jason Elliott, Lee’s legislative liaison to the board.

The mayor maintains his proposal is a common-sense step to guard against ill-conceived legislation that eliminates jobs.

The plan would require the Board of Supervisors to wait at least 60 days before adopting an ordinance that the city controller determines may result in a significant job loss. It would also require that a separate hearing by held at the city’s Small Business Commission, Planning Commission or other relevant city agencies for analysis.